Schools must reschedule games

Last week's winter storm caused havoc throughout Newton County. It has also put the county's basketball teams in a situation where they'll need to make up two and even three games in the case of Alcovy and Newton.

"It's not a pretty picture right now," Newton coach Rick Rasmussen said. "Basically everyone lost three games. We'll have to make up the region games first and then we'll hope to work something out for the Rockdale game. Right now our priority is the region games."

According to the Georgia High School Association, region games must be rescheduled. For Eastside that means games against Locust Grove and Jackson while Alcovy must reschedule games against Jones County and Union Grove. Newton must find room to make up games against Westlake and East Coweta. Then there are the two games out of region for Alcovy and Newton. The Tigers were supposed to play at Phillips Arena Saturday against Salem while the much anticipated matchup with Rockdale for Newton was scrubbed as well. That game may never happen.

"Right now we don't have any openings so I don't know how we are going to work that in," Rasmussen said. "It's not going to be easy to work in. I hope they can get it worked out. We'd like to play it but you can't cancel other games just to reschedule it. Hopefully we'll find a day that will work for both schools."

The Rams play Eastside next Saturday and are supposed to travel to Rockdale the following Saturday for what was supposed to be the second of two games. According to Rasmussen, they will likely have to play at least two games during the week once to make up one of the region games and may have to use an open Saturday to make up the East Coweta game.

"It's the longest break we've ever had during the season in my 10 years," Rasmussen said. "We're in uncharted territory and again, everyone's schedule is messed up. It's going to be hectic trying to play three and maybe four games a week while you are also a full-time student."

The Rams could make up the Westlake game Wednesday depending on whether the administrators at Westlake can work it out. He emphasized that game would have to be rescheduled before they play East Coweta for the first time. That could put at least one of the Rockdale games in jeopardy and perhaps both if things get too hectic.

"I'm not sure even playing the second game would be very good for either team at this point," he said. "You have to think about the academics of the students too. That's a lot to ask kids that are also trying to concentrate on their academics so we may end up having to cancel that game. It'll depend on what the athletic directors and principals can work out."

The teams will get back to some semblance of normalcy this week. Rasmussen said he expects to get back in the gym Monday but added he's a bit concerned with the layoff especially due to the fact that the Rams had been playing well before the unexpected break.

"We'll have to almost start over with the fundamentals and make sure we haven't forgotten how to play," he said. "We'll practice Monday and play Tuesday and possibly Wednesday at Westlake but we have things we have to work on before we can even talk about the scouting report for Luella. We won five in a row before the week off so hopefully it won't affect us. We're really big on not taking time off. Our schedule is set up to stay fresh and this throws a huge wrench in that."